Ibulliance: There's Always Something You can Do
During the height of the pandemic, I spoke with my friend and Ibu ally, Charlotte Moss, noticing an urgency in her voice. I have an idea, she said, and I've just got to do it. Charlotte had learned the staggering number of children in this country at risk of hunger (shockingly one in five), and learned also of a group tackling the problem. Remembering Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless, a successful fundraising effort in 1916 that aided refugees and children during the First World War, Charlotte began to let her idea blossom. Calling her creative friends—125 of them—she asked each to consider the question: what is home to you? The result of months on the phone with notables like Bette Midler, Issac Mizrahi, Joyce Carol Oates, Gloria Steinem, Julian Fellowes, Alice Walters, Kelly Wearstler, and many more is a keepsake book compiling art, recipes, songs, and remembrances called Home: A Celebration. Every sale of this brilliant book goes directly to fund the non-profit, No Kid Hungry.
This only one of the ideas that bloomed during the shutdown, as Charlotte seeded creative projects through her online Social Media community, challenging us to create, and then matching our efforts with her own contributions, raising almost $150,000 to address critical needs. And that was at the very time when so many were feeling helpless, stranded, alone—thinking there is nothing we can do. Charlotte shows me, over and over again, there is always something you can do for others.
When Ibu was a wee-bu idea in my mind, not yet even a storefront but a bundle of artisan goods in my weaving studio, Charlotte approached me at an event I was attending in her honor and inquired about my work. I want to know more, she said with curiosity. She saw a spark and began fanning it until, within a couple of years, Charlotte was designing a collection for Ibu, debuting it in New York City to wide acclaim, and jumping on a plane to Marrakech with me to meet the women who had made the gorgeous pieces. The spark began to flame, to roar.
Throughout the first decade of Ibu, Charlotte has stayed by our side. Next week, I am thrilled for Ibu to debut a second Collection by her bright designing mind. This Spring drop, redolent of the desert colors of Morocco, brings together some of her favorite silhouettes with the embroidery Moroccan women know best. The result is smart, chic, fresh, and endlessly wearable. I can't wait to unveil the collection at our Night in the Medina one week from today!
I don't have enough space here to recount the awards and acclaim that have followed Charlotte throughout her distinguished career, the eleven books published, the companies who carry her licensed designs, the honorary doctorates bestowed. But I do know that Charlotte finds her greatest satisfaction in her philanthropic efforts.
These are lessons I can live by. Charlotte, with her endless curiosity and sense of possibility, shows me how. I'm wondering now about you—what seed is it you are carrying, what idea is blooming, what is it you've just got to do?
All the best,
SHW
